The Ambassador's Mission (Traitor Spy, #1)

by Trudi Canavan

Sonea, once the despised commoner in the Magicians' Guild, is now a Black Magician of Kyralia. Though she is now part of the establishment, she comes to find that the past is not so easily left behind...
Lorkin, Sonea's rebellious son, has volunteered to join the formidable Lord Dannyl in his new post as Guild Ambassador to Sachaka - a land ruled by cruel, slave-owning black magicians. There is suspicion that some of the Sachakans still harbor dreams of conquest, so when word comes that Lorkin has gone missing, Sonea is desperate to find him. However, Guild law states that if a Black Magician leaves the city he or she will be exiled forever.
As she fears for her missing son, Sonea dedicates herself to helping her old friend Cery. For some time, there has been fear and paranoia on the streets of Imardin. Leading thieves have been dying under irregular circumstances. The need to discover who has been picking off the leading thieves of the city is now a very personal crusade - one that Sonea must aid, for the killer appears to be using magic.
Either a member of the Guild is leading a double life as a hired killer, or there is - once again - a rogue magician on the streets of Imardin . . .

• ISBN10: 0316037834
• ISBN13: 9780316037839
• Publish Date: 18 May 2010 (first published 6 May 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 513
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

This is night and day from my last read of this book.

I think it's because I have read so many books in the last 7 years that I have a different standard of reading. I believe the underlying story still seems really interesting within The Ambassador's Mission, but it's such a drag getting there. 100 pages in and we're still dancing between three plotlines, none of which seem to be the one promised in the summary on the back of the book, not really. And the style of writing is just... boring. It's dull and lifeless and delivers everything in the form of dialogue, which made the world itself feel really two-dimensional.

Simply put, I don't have the patience to travese this story and wait to reach "the good part". There's so much that could have been trimmed on the cutting room floor to make this book more interesting and a lot of the language could have been tightened up. At this point in my life, I just don't have the time or willpower to slog through it all.
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Original Review: Five Stars

This was one of the books I picked up at Borders' closing sale, desperately pretending that I read something other than YA fantasy. I didn't really know what to expect of. it. I guess if anything i expected a mediocre book. It wasn't. It was really rather good. It's not the type of book i got so immensely excited about that I couldn't put it down, but I didn't feel like I was trudging through it either. In fact, when I finished reading the book, I was actually disappointed.

It took me a little while to actually get into the book. Other reviews that I have read mourn that it doesn't compare to Canavan's other works, but having never heard of her before, I found that jumping into her universe right here worked well with me. She certainly takes enough time to introduce you to all her characters - even those that will ultimately be less significant. Because of this, I was distracted in the beginning, but once the plot picked up, I absolutely loved the book.

I would advise the people who enjoy a style somewhere between J.R.R. Tolkien and Tamora Pierce to consider picking up this book (or anything of Canavan's) and giving it a fair shot. I think they may like what they find.